‘I don’t really like those guys, and they don’t like us’ – Steelers-Browns game gets chippy

It’s one of the oldest rivalries in the NFL, and the intensity between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns seems to be percolating as hot as it has in a while.

“I don’t really like those guys,” Steelers cornerback Joey Porter Jr. said, “and they don’t like us. So at the end of the day, it is what it is.”

Porter Jr. got involved in what he called a “scuffle” with Cleveland receiver Jerry Jeudy as the clock was running out of the Steelers’ 27-14 win at Acrisure Stadium on Sunday. While dozens of players and coaches on each side were walking out to the middle of the field to exchange pleasantries, somehow Porter and Jeudy ended up in a kerfuffle.

“That’s the thing,” Porter said, “I wasn’t really trying to have a scuffle with him.

“I really don’t care about it. He said what he said, I said what I said. … I am just happy we got the team win. At the end of the day, they lost, we won. So I am happy.”

The Steelers’ win against their AFC North rivals came 17 days after a 24-19 loss in Cleveland. After that one, Myles Garrett proclaimed himself the NFL’s best defensive player, a statement many took as a veiled shot at the Steelers’ T.J. Watt. Meanwhile, Steelers receiver George Pickens said after the loss, “I don’t really think the Cleveland Browns are a good team at all.”

On Friday, Pickens and Browns defensive back Greg Newsome traded verbal jabs via the media.

Steelers receiver Van Jefferson acknowledged Sunday’s game got “a little bit” chippy.

“It’s two divisional opponents just playing against each other,” Jefferson said. “We know each other very well. Obviously, you try to keep your emotions in tact.”

Aside from the postgame dust-up between Porter and Jeudy, Sunday’s game featured two unnecessary roughness penalties (one on Porter), a taunting flag on Cleveland’s Kadarius Toney and a roughing-the-passer call on the Steelers’ Alex Highsmith.

“We didn’t talk about them at all because at the end of the day any time when you step on the field on Sundays it’s about us,” Steelers receiver Calvin Austin III said. “This was nothing about them at all. We talked about them only in terms of film (study), but at the end of the day it was about us not being happy with the performance and the things we messed up on (in the Nov. 21 loss).”

The win by the Steelers (10-3) officially eliminated the Browns (3-10) from playoff contention. It prevented the first Cleveland season sweep in the series since 1988.

“Like (coach Mike Tomlin) was saying all week, ‘It’s not a ‘get-back’ it’s a ‘get-right,’” Porter said. “And I feel like everybody felt like it was a get-right. We had to pick up and learn from our mistakes last game. We did that.”